Dug Out
France
19/2/17
Dear Everybody.
You will see by the heading that we are still in the lands of the dug outs, & a pretty cold old land it is proving to be. The frosts of which I wrote last, have come to an end & now we are suffering from a slow thaw. There is acres of mud about & it is almost impossible to keep oneself clean at all. As for the military situation it is as the papers report daily, “very quiet along the whole front, the usual artillery activity on both sides south of Armentieres
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etc.” I wonder how much those words convey to the average individual, if by any chance it conveys as much understanding to them as it means shelling to us, well I’m sure they understand our position pretty thoroughly. But does it, I hope not, for it would be certain to give every one a totally wrong impression of the two armies facing each other with only a few hundred yards of disputed country lying between them. In fact I do not think that I am right when I say a few hundred yards of disputed country between the trenches
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in so much that our domination of No Man’s Land is pretty complete. As for the position of the armies as a whole, it is an absolute reverse of what was the case at the same period of the year 1915. Then the poor fellows holding these trenches had to take all the shelling old Fritz choose to give them & say very little. Now however, the boot is on the other foot, & our old friend is usually very glad to lay down his arms when a strafe begins, & seems to be more or less sorry he ever began one. Since our coming into
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this sector there has been a remarkable change in his attitude. He used to strafe regularly every day but now, we can shell away considerably & he very often refuses to open up at all. Three nights ago, we had a real first class contest, our guns some number of them opened up simultaneously, & within 3 minutes Fritz commenced to reply, so that between the lines we had a very interesting 3/4 of an hour. Intense as the bombardment was it was remarkable the
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number of casualties there were. In our Batt there were none at all, & in the one most subjected to the fire there only two or three at the very most. As for when the big push is coming off & consequently the end, we still have not the faintest idea. We have almost given up thinking about these things now. I have started getting my mail again now, jumped off with a little lot of ten about 5 days ago, latest date 4th Dec. The delay is due to the
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changing of the address from c/o of Hoopers direct to the O.M.R. I always get them much quicker coming through the Hoopers. Amongst those received was a fine parcel from Jean, Orepuki. It has evidently been a long time on the way, but despite the fact that the tin was knocked about a good deal the contents were in perfect condition, & very acceptable up here. Many thanks indeed Jean, I had intended writing you direct but our opportunities in that direction are not many these days.
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From Kate I have been hearing very regularly, & according to her last advice, she has been spending a week end with the Hoopers, & enjoyed it very much. Through her I received a very interesting letter from Charl. He had then joined up some time with his regiment 10th Squdn Canterbury Regt, & seemed to be enjoying himself thoroughly, & looking forward to getting across the Egyptian border into Palestine. There he expects, & rightly so, that they will be amidst new fields & pastures green, a longing
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every man acquires after spending a few months in the Egyptian desert. Where he is situated exactly I am not too certain but from his description I think it is about El Arish right on the sea coast. Up to the time of his writing Kate he had not received any letters from me despite the fact that I have written him 3 times & also some 2 months ago. We have some very interesting experiences with our patrols this last week. A couple of nights ago a dense fog came down, & after visiting the Huns’
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parapet & being fired upon by machine gun & rifles our patrol started to come back. After going a little way they found themselves in Hun wire again. Upon this disaster the members of the expedition consulted one another & at last had to admit they were lost. To locate their position was impossible under the circumstances, & to move was pretty nearly certain death. However, move they did, but somehow they got cut in half, with the result that instead of one party lost, we
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had two parties out & neither knew where the other was. We sent out another patrol to search for the missing one, & they managed to pick up one party but could not locate the other. Owing to a prearranged programme the Batt on our left was doing a certain amount of firing at a certain hour by which time we were to have all our men out of No Mans Land. I got hold of Head Quarters to stop the said firing & allow me to send out another patrol. The first item they could not get cancelled, & as a
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they would not let me send out another patrol. I can assure you I was not feeling too happy over the affair, knowing as I did that one man at least was slightly wounded. Orders were orders however & I had per force to knuckle down. Just at daylight we were agreeably surprised to find the lost men scrambling back to safety. Not however without the same man being wounded again in the arm while doing so. Other than the wound he was quite all
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right, & I trust by now is well & truly in a good hospital somewhere in Blighty. We gave the others a good stiff nip of rum & sent them off to bed for the rest of the day, their clothes drying meanwhile. So ended a very anxious 10 hours. Since writing the above a mail has just come in, but owing to “stand to” being up I must be off. It is an awful bore, we do it day after day & nothing happens, yet it must be done. Am in best of good form. Au Revoir. Affect Brother E.S.
